When asked today about the possibility of an Apple netbook, Steve Jobs said something to the effect of, “The market is just getting started – we’ll see how it goes.”
Huh? Here’s how the netbook market’s going, Steve: pretty much every major computer company has a netbook but you. Apple’s a prime candidate for a netbook, too. Know why? Because it’s just about the only company that could get away with selling it for well over $500. I bet Apple could sell a netbook for at least $600 or more.
So why should Apple, in particular, get into netbooks?
1. It gets people in the door at a low price point. Remember the Mac Mini? The Mac Mini’s sole purpose is to get people who are scared off by Apple’s relatively high prices into the game. But there’s a problem; nobody really buys desktops any more — especially not novice and/or basic computer users. Everyone buys laptops now.
At $999+, getting into an Apple laptop is a bit daunting for most people. But offer the Apple portable computing experience at near Mac Mini prices, and see what happens. There’s no big danger in offering an Apple netbook at $600 or more, so long as the next least expensive option remains at $999. PC notebook manufacturers don’t have that same luxury. You can’t price netbooks higher than your cheapest notebooks.
2. Netbooks are big on the whole alternative operating system thing. Regular people who would normally buy Windows-based computers are buying Linux-based netbooks without ever having used Linux before. It’s an even shorter leap to OS X. I mean, you already own an iPod, right? I use a PC for day-to-day stuff but I’d buy a Mac netbook for traveling because I know it’d be well-built, fast, and great for surfing the web.
“Regular” people would probably do the same thing. They’d say, “Oh, this doesn’t have Windows but at least I’ve heard of Apple and I like how it looks.” Plenty of people have at least used a Mac before, too, even if they usually use Windows.
3. It’s time for Apple to put out another small-ish laptop. No matter how light the MacBook Air gets, some people still want a computer that’s dimensionally small and lightweight. Howsabout a 10-inch screen? Even bring back the 12-inch screens. I saw an old 12-inch iBook G4 on the train the other week and did a double-take. They just don’t make ‘em like that any more.
4. The iPhone and iPod Touch desperately need to be integrated with something substantial. I’m not saying to go the RedFly or Palm Folio (R.I.P.) route and make the netbook useless on its own, but maybe make the netbook the one device that lets you easily tether your iPhone or perhaps include pre-set wireless synchronization or something. I’m also a huge fan of the idea of letting the iPhone/iPod Touch serve as the trackpad for the device, but you want to make the netbook so that people can buy it without having to own the other devices.
5. Make the decision easy for everyone by giving it a multi-touch screen like the one on the iPhone/iPod Touch and a good keyboard like the one on the MacBooks. People complain relentlessly about the trackpads, mouse buttons, and keyboards on today’s currently available netbooks. It might take an innovator like Apple to fix that problem.
Don’t forget about the Fujitsu U820
Jobs probably sees the iPhone and the iPod touch as netbooks. honestly, thats all the netbooks really are a step between a smartphone and a full fledge labtop.
But isn’t the iPod Touch / iPhone already a netbook or… if you wish, a net-tablet?
I have a 12″ G4 powerbook, I think it’s the perfect netbook. It’s got a fullsize keyboard that takes up the entire base of the computer, if it were any smaller the keyboard would have to shrink. I sit in class next to a guy using an Eee, it looks like a joke. The screen and keyboard are so tiny it’s just not reasonable. At least on the newer Eee’s the screen is as big as the panel it sits on.
I agree that the iPhone/touch is their netbook – I would rather have a touch than an eee.
Remember the PowerBook 12″ G4?
I have been saying it since I got the iPhone.. Not what you expect to hear, but I wish it was a little bit bigger. Big enough that the ‘key board’ could be used two handed, and using more space inside to make it more powerful more like a computer.
I guarantee nobody will be upset with the correspondingly larger sized screen that that would bring as well, better for watching videos..
When you’re talking about a phone, commonly people want a smaller product, but the iPhone goes WAY beyond phone, and it shouldn’t be stuck in the phone ‘box’ when it could be so much more.
Apple, merge the netbook idea with a slightly larger iPhone, it’ll be a killer product.
I agree completely. An aluminum cased “tablet” about the thickness of the bottom of the Macbook Pro would be amazing.
That sounds like a Nokia Communicator but with OS X, Apple design and usability (multi-touch, high-quality keyboard etc).
Not only do all of those conceptual points make sense, but the hardware upgrades that Apple has been making recently point toward a netbook release. By converting their entire line to the new Nvidia motherboards, Apple is foreshadowing their implementation in the genre the GeForce 9400M was built for: netbooks. Read more about Apple’s implementation of this chip at http://www.NetbookStation.com
My old iBook is almost a netbook. It just does not have WLAN, but I’ve installed Linux on it :-)
I’d love to buy a 10 inch Mac Netbook for $600. Throw in 802.11n wireless, iTunes, pre installed Skype with compatible audio hardware and a DVD player for watching movies, and that would be the ultimate toy to play with while I’m laid over at the airport. A few games would be nice too. I’d probably buy at least 2 of these. Can I backorder them now?
It wouldn’t be a netbook if it had a DVD player, and it would be a challenge to fit a DVD drive in a 10″ notebook anyway.
>>>woody – January 4th, 2009 at 7:06 am PST
I’d love to buy a 10 inch Mac Netbook for $600
>>
Woody, please order one for me too.
THX
PS: If it doesn’t come by early 2010, cancel my order and I’ll get an MSI Wind.
Man, would love to get one of these for myself
If Apple makes a unibody MacBook Pro with 12 inch screen, just like my favorite PowerBook G4, it will be my ultimate netbook.
I agree with everyone here… if apple makes a netbook with a 12″ screen in tablet form (basically a larger iPhone) it would be phenomenal. Although I think largely people would probably complain about the keyboard.
The Apple iTablet or MacTouch must have the full Mac OS X inside (not just the limited OS X). That is absolutely essential to run the full blown Office and iWork there. Not to work on it, but to use it for full blown Keynote and PowerPoint presentations via VGA-out port, Firewire port for repairs via Target Disk Mode, Ethernet port and at least two USB2 ports.
Because even the MacBook Air is too heavy and large. It must be 400 g or less (the lighter and smaller, the better), like the OQO model 2+
http://www.oqo.com
but like this with a touch screen:
Next Apple moves will be Books and Games…
http://spidouz.wordpress.com/2008/09/03/next-apple-moves-will-be-books-and-games
It will set new standards on all the corporate, academic and domestic markets. A new Halo effect will bring now millions to the Mac. Think about it also as the ultimate and portable development tool.
Everyone should stop using the false paradigm of ‘netbooks’. People just want reasonably-sized (9×11x1 in.) notebooks! For some odd reason, companies decided that notebooks ‘needed’ to have a 16:9 wide screens (like television???). This had the effect of forcing larger (13-17″) screens to have enough screen height.
The whole widescreen thing is due to the fact that a 13″ widescreen actually has less real estate and costs less to produce than a 13″ 4:3 ratio screen, but can still be advertised as 13″. (See the digital picture frame market, for example. All of the lower cost models are widescreen.)
I’m still using my 12″ G4 PowerBook every day as well, upgraded to 1 GB RAM and a 32 GB SSD. But, a slightly smaller and lighter version would be most welcome – i.e., a MacBook Air mini (except not that name) – 10″ 4:3 or 12″ widescreen, 32/64 GB SSD, Atom N270, etc… The N270 has been demonstrated to be powerful enough to run OS X via many Hackintoshers, at 1/7th the power draw of the Air’s C2D 35 Watt processor. As noted already, Apple might actually be able to sell this for $600.
fuck all of you
you guys r haters
you’re all just mad cuz apple stay ahead of everybody else shut the fuck up cuz Apple made the first iPhone iPod touch computer and notebook so show respect
Yall need to Stop being so fucking cheap
cuz when you fucking PC crash half of yall fags run for a mac
You must be he devils rag doll!
Your posting should be wiped, it contaminates this site.
There is no way I would want an iPhone-like netbook. I want a mini Apple laptop, otherwise, what’s the point. Based on the touch screen nature of the iPhone alone, I decided instead to go with a Blackberry and I LOVE Apple Macs… If that’s what Steve Jobs has in mind, I’m buying a PC netbook. The Sony P series is pretty dinky. See here: http://www.electronicpulp.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/sony-p-series-netbook-leaked.jpg
> People complain relentlessly about the
> trackpads, mouse buttons, and keyboards
> on today’s currently available netbooks.
The reason MacBook Air has a 13-inch screen is because that’s what matches a full-size keyboard and full-size multitouch trackpad. It can’t be built smaller. The 10-inch Mac you’re asking for would be subject to the same complaints that you can’t touch type on it.
Also, unless you’re suggesting people use netbooks 100% of the time instead of regular size PC’s, you’re talking about people owning both a full-size PC desktop or notebook, plus a netbook. By the time you buy your notebook, netbook, Windows upgrades for both, anti-virus and anti-malware for both, you are paying the same as MacBook Air.
The MacBook Air has a full-size PC processor and NVIDIA graphics, so it’s both a notebook and a netbook in one device. I carry mine everywhere along with an iPhone and it’s never too big to take with me, and never too underpowered to do what I need to do. And I can touch type 80 wpm on MacBook Air and thumb type 40 wpm on iPhone and no complaints about either keyboard.
I think netbooks are just a sham. People think they are getting a whole notebook computer for $299 and when they get it they think it is cute and once they’ve used it a bit they hate the damn thing. You are better to put that $299 into your main PC purchase and avoid the sub-$1000 flotsam and get a real PC that can last you 3 years and do any task, like a MacBook Air.
TCO on a MacBook Air plus iPhone 3GS is about $50 a month and you’re never without a computer in your hand, no matter what the situation. That is the world’s best smartphone and the world’s best sub-notebook for less than $2 per day. And there is almost zero I-T work because of Software Update, Time Machine, Unix security, Apple Genius. I have friends who are spending more than my total I-T budget just on the guy who comes by every month or two to clean out their PC malware. So I think “cheap netbooks” is another sucker game for techno rubes.
As much as I like Apple products, the Air unfortunately doesn’t make a good travel computer for me. No Ethernet port, no SD reader and not even Apple’s firewire. Many hotels that I go to use wired Internet. So with the Air it’s necessary to carry adapters.
As for the Win Netbooks, the MSI stands out as a great netbook product. It even has the matte screen I desire. Linux or if one wants a bit of work hacking OS X onto it solves the security problem.
For now I lug my 14″ Pismo PB which does everything, including playing DVDs, or on longer trips my Palm T-C. These both have WiFi, but the Palm doesn’t have wired ethernet, it’s browsing function is limited by it’s age and the screen is a bit small for viewing pictures.
So for my and many of my friends use for travel, a 10″ Netbook fits the bill quite well. For light browsing, Office functions, backing up and viewing pictures, plus the odd game.
The plain and simple reason that Apple does not make a netbook is because it doesn’t make a whole lot of money from selling a netbook. Neither do any of the big PC manufacturers. For every one MacBook Pro Apple sells, it probably makes the same amount of money as Acer does selling ten netbooks. I think Apple is pretty content in letting the other PC manufacturers duke it out in the netbook space, as their margins continue to shrink. Apple just let’s the coffers fill, and I guarantee you won’t release a netbook unless it’s profits start to shrink. Then it may try to compete on volume, but I doubt that will happen any time soon.
How right you are, Apple doesn’t see enough money in it. If only Apple would make a MacBook the size of the 12″ G4 PB.
Well I decided not to wait for Apple and bought a slightly used MSI netbook. I’ll partition it and use mainly Unix, but have the supplied WinXP home just in case.
I moved on this now because I notice Netbooks going downhill, becoming even more cheaply made. Like less pixels on an HP Netbook that sells new for about $250.
Thanks for a remarkably informative post. ,